Getting people excited about their data one visual at a time™

Alexander I of Russia

Readers: I am preparing a presentation at work on Charles Joseph Minard’s map of Napoleon’s Russian Campaign of 1812. I have taken the largest version of the map I could find and added some annotations noting why Edward Tufte, in his seminal book, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, calls Minard’s Napoleon map one of the “best statistical […]

This is the last blog from my multi-part series on Charles Minard’s Flow Map of Napoleon’s Russian Campaign of 1812. It discusses the reasons why it failed, which relate mainly to logistics. I hope you enjoyed this series and will soon discuss other famous data visualizations in World history. I would like to credit Martin […]

Since Minard’s map is in French, I have provided an English language version for us to use as we discuss the flow of Napoleon’s retreat in detail. [9] The End of Napoleon’s Russian Campaign [10] After a fierce action, the rearguard of Napoleon’s Grande Armée crossed the River Berezina on 29 November. It seemed to the […]

Retreat! Since Minard’s map is in French, I have provided an English language version for us to use as we discuss the flow of Napoleon’s retreat in detail. [11] Napoleon’s Crossing of the Berezina [12] Napoleon fought off the pursuing Russians under Prince Mikhail Kutuzov at Krasny on 17 November 1812. However, he was forced to continue […]

Retreat! Since Minard’s map is in French, I have provided an English language version for us to use as we discuss the flow of Napoleon’s retreat in detail. [11] The Battle of Krasny (Krasnoi), November 1812 [12] The previous post in this series described Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow to Smolensk, which he reached on 9 November […]

Retreat! Since Minard’s map is in French, I have provided an English language version for us to use as we discuss the flow of Napoleon’s retreat in detail. [12] Napoleon’s Retreat from Moscow to Smolensk [13] The previous post in this series described how Napoleon decided to retreat from Moscow on 18 October 1812. His intention was to […]

Retreat! Since Minard’s map is in French, I have provided an English language version for us to use as we discuss the flow of Napoleon’s retreat in detail. [10] Retreat from Moscow, October 18, 1812 [11] After Napoleon’s victory at Borodino led to the French capture of Moscow, Prince Mikhail Kutuzov’s Russian army retreated to Tarutino, south and slightly […]